By Federico Fuentes, Monthly Review, September 25, 2011
Statements, articles, letters, and petitions have been
circulating on the Internet for the past month calling for an end to the
"destruction of the Amazon." The target of these initiatives
has not been transnational corporations or the powerful governments that back
them, but the government of Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales.
At the centre of the debate is the Bolivian government's
controversial proposal to build a highway through the Isiboro Secure National
Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS). TIPNIS, which covers more than 1
million hectares of forest, was granted indigenous territory status by the
Morales government in 2009. About 12,000 people from three different
indigenous groups live in 64 communities within TIPNIS.
On August 15, representatives from the TIPNIS Subcentral
that unites these communities, as well as other indigenous groups, began a
march to the capital city, La Paz, to protest against the highway plan.
International petitions have been initiated, declaring support for this march
and condemning the Morales government for undermining indigenous rights.
The people of TIPNIS have legitimate concerns about the
highway's impact. There is also no doubt the government has made errors
in its handling of the issue.
Unfortunately, petitions such as the one initiated by
international lobby group Avaaz and a September 21 letter to Morales signed by over 60 environmental
groups mostly outside Bolivia misrepresent the facts and misdirect their fire.
They could inadvertently aid the opponents of the global struggle for climate
justice.
Avaaz warns that the highway "could enable foreign
companies to pillage the world's most important forest." But it
fails to mention the destruction that is already happening in the area, in some
cases with the complicity of local indigenous communities. In contrast,
the Morales government has promised to introduce a new law, in consultation
with communities within TIPNIS, to add new protections for the national park.
The proposed law would set jail terms of between 10 to 20 years for illegal
settlements, growing coca, or logging in the national park.
Also, Avaaz claims that "huge economic
interests" are motivating Morales' support for the highway. But
Avaaz omits the benefits that such a highway (whether it ultimately goes
through TIPNIS or not) will bring Bolivia and its peoples. For example,
this 306-kilometer highway linking the departments of Beni and Cochabamba (with
only a part of it going through TIPNIS) would expand access to health care and
other basic services to isolated local communities who now travel for days to
receive medical care. The highway would also give local agricultural
producers greater access to markets to sell their goods. At the moment,
these must go via Santa Cruz to the east before they can be transported
westward. Given Beni's status as the largest meat-producing department,
this would break the hold that Santa Cruz-based slaughterhouses have on
imposing meat prices. The highway would also allow the state to assert
sovereignty over remote areas, including the areas where illegal logging takes
place.
It is facts such as these that have convinced more than
350 Bolivian organizations, including many of the social organizations that
have led the country's inspiring struggles against neoliberalism, to support
the proposed highway.
Many indigenous organizations and communities (including
within TIPNIS), moreover, support the highway. It is therefore false to
describe this as a dispute between the government and indigenous people.
Nor is it a simple conflict between supporters of development and defenders of
the environment.
All sides in the dispute want greater development and
improved access to basic services. The issue at stake is how the second
poorest country in the Americas, facing intense pressure from more powerful
governments and corporate forces, can meet the needs of its people while
protecting the environment. Given this, surely it makes more sense for
those who wish to defend Bolivia's process of change to support steps towards
dialogue, rather that deepening the divisions.
Legitimate criticism can be made of the government's
handling of the consultation process. But the Avaaz petition and the
letter from environmental groups simply ignore the government's repeated
attempts to open discussions with the protesters. Half the members of
Morales' ministerial cabinet, along with many more vice-ministers and heads of
state institutions, have traveled to the march route to talk with protesters.
The petitioners don't mention the Morales government's
public commitment to carry out a consultation process within the framework of
the Bolivian constitution, popularly approved in 2009. Neither do they
mention its offer to have the consultation process overseen by international
observers selected by protesters themselves.
The government has also remained open to discussing the
economic and environmental feasibility of any alternative route that could
bypass TIPNIS. No such alternative has been presented yet.
As a result of these initiatives, a number of the TIPNIS
communities that had joined the march, as well as representatives from the
Assembly of the Guarani People, have since decided to return home. They
will continue discussions with the government.
Sadly, among the key opponents of the proposed
consultation process are organizations based outside TIPNIS included among the
march leaders. These organizations were also the main proponents of a
further 15 demands being placed on the government the day the march began.
Many of these demands are legitimate. But it is
alarming that some of the more dangerously backward demands have been ignored
or dismissed by international environment groups.
For example, the letter to Morales raises concerns
regarding the Bolivian president's statement that "oil drilling in
Aguarague National Park 'will not be negotiated'." Those gas fields
represent 90% of Bolivia's gas exports and are a vital source of funds that the
Morales government has been using to tackle poverty and develop Bolivia's
economy. The fact that the bulk of gas revenue is controlled by the
Bolivian state rather than transnational corporation is the result of years of
struggles by the Bolivian masses, who rightfully believe this resource should
be used to develop their country. The concerns of local communities
should be, and have been, taken into consideration. But, for Bolivia to
cut off this source of revenue would have dire consequences for the people of
one of the poorest nations in the Americas. It would, without
exaggeration, be economic suicide. Initially, protesters also demanded a
halt to gas extraction in Aguarague. They have retreated on this and are
now focused on the question of plugging up unused oil wells due to the
contamination this is could cause to local water supplies.
Similarly, neither of the Internet statements mentions
the protesters' support for the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
Forest Degradation (REDD)
program. REDD is a grossly anti-environmental United Nations program that
aims to privatize forests by converting them into "carbon offsets"
that allow rich, developed countries to continue polluting. Some of the
biggest proponents of this measure can be found among the NGOs promoting the
march. Many of these have received direct funding from the US government,
whose ambassador in Bolivia was expelled in September 2008 for supporting a
right-wing coup attempt against the elected Morales government.
Rather than defend Bolivia's sovereignty against US
interference, the letter denounces the Bolivian government for exposing
connections between the protesters and "obscure interests."
These "obscure interests" include the League for the Defense of the
Environment (LIDEMA), which was set up with US government funds. Its
backers include the US government aid agency, USAID, and the German-based Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which frequently funds actions
against the governments opposed by the United States and European governments
such as Cuba. Secret US diplomatic cables recently released by WikiLeaks and
declassified US government files have conclusively shown that USAID directly
targets indigenous communities in a bid to win them away from support for
Morales and towards supporting US interests.
Behind these very real interests lies a campaign by rich
nations and conservative environmental groups to promote policies that
represent a new form of "green imperialism." After centuries of
plundering the resources of other countries, wiping out indigenous populations,
and creating a dire global environmental crisis, the governments of rich
nations now use environmental concerns to promote policies that deny
underdeveloped nations the right to control and manage their own resources.
If they have their ways, these groups will reduce indigenous people to mere
"park rangers," paid by rich countries to protect limited areas,
while multinational corporations destroy the environment elsewhere.
Bolivia's indigenous majority has chosen a very
different road. They aim to create a new state in which they are no
longer marginalized or treated as minority groups that require special
protection. In alliance with other oppressed sectors, they aim to run
their country for the collective benefit of the majority. The Bolivian
masses have successfully wrested government power from the traditional elites,
won control over gas and other resources, and adopted a new constitution.
Mistakes have been made and are likely in future. But
they are the mistakes of a people of a small, landlocked, and underdeveloped
country fighting constant imperialist assaults.
Key to the Bolivian peoples' fight is the worldwide
front for climate justice, in which Bolivia is playing a vital leadership role.
One example was the 35,000-strong People's
Summit on Climate Change organized by the Morales government in Cochabamba in April
2010. The summit's final declaration named developed countries as
"the main cause of climate change." It insisted that those
countries must "recognize and honor their climate debt," redirecting
funds from war to aiding poorer nations to develop their economies "to
produce goods and services necessary to satisfy the fundamental needs of their
population."
To achieve this, the international climate justice
movement must focus its efforts on forcing rich nations to accept their
responsibilities. The global movement must explicitly reject imperialist
intervention in all its forms, including the "green imperialist"
policies of US-funded NGOs. Only through such a campaign can we support
the efforts of poorer countries to chart a development path that respects the
environment.
Unfortunately, Avaaz and the organizations that have signed the
letter against Morales let the real culprits off the hook. Their campaign
should be rejected by all environmentalists and anti-imperialists fighting for
a better a world.
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